food

[moon1964]

whats a good reward treat

 

[wrench13]

My Yellow shoulder Amazon, Salty, LOVES pine nuts! He would plow the back 40 for a pine nut!

 

[JimsBrother]

My Blue Front loves Nutriberries.

 

[MykaMom]

whats a good reward treat

Treats are individual. Take 2 different nuts, offer them both on your palm and see which your bird chooses. Keep doing this until you find out which is his absolute favorite, called the 'high reward' treat.

Salty's bird chooses the pine nut. Mine ALWAYS goes for pecans, hands down. That's his highest reward.

Give your birb choices and you'll find out fast!

 

[MykaMom]

My Blue Front loves Nutriberries.

Yet mine hates them! They're so individual!

 

[JimsBrother]

My Yellow shoulder Amazon, Salty, LOVES pine nuts! He would plow the back 40 for a pine nut!

Are all nuts fattening? Jim stopped giving Amy peanuts because of that, but what about walnuts (I have some)?

Dave

 

[MykaMom]

Are all nuts fattening? Jim stopped giving Amy peanuts because of that, but what about walnuts (I have some)?

Dave

They need some fat - healthy fat - in their diet. There's good stuff in nuts: they should be fed sparingly, as treats. I give Myka(13yr old YNA) roasted, unsalted peanuts in shells, almonds both shelled and not, pecans, pine nuts - whatever I have on hand.

I honestly don't know the overall percentage of an Amazon’s diet should be nuts, maybe 1%-5%?

 

[SailBoat]

Walnuts are a great treat based nut! Target tree grown nuts over ground nuts. Peanuts are a real no-no for both the high fat and the fungus that can be found on them. Julio has a love for Almonds.

 

[cnyguy]

My two parrots like popcorn. They get plain air-popped popcorn, no oil, salt or butter. They like it so much that I have only to say the word popcorn and there will be two parrots waiting for their treat.
Every parrot is different. Some like pumpkin seeds for a treat and some like Cheerios cereal. My two can live without both. You may have to experiment a little to learn what your parrot likes best.

 

[HeatherG]

Lucy would kill for a pumpkin or squash seed but I have not yet found Willow’s ultimate bribe. It may be popcorn. Avicake is pretty good, too but nutriberries are not.

Willow is willing to bite the romaine lettuce (to kill it for intruding in his dish) but I don’t think he eats it. Fresh hot peppers are really enjoyed but he doesn’t like dried ones.

I just bought a bag of fresh cockatiel seed and need to dedicate a few hours to picking out the sunflower seeds. Then the little blue devil will have some seed added to his diet. I think Willow is so stuffed on high potency Harrison’s that no food reward is interesting. So I want to add some seed and more veggies to his diet and see if that helps. (My fear is that once he realizes seed still exists, then he will completely refuse to eat the pellets. I sure hope not.)

 

[cnyguy]

I just bought a bag of fresh cockatiel seed and need to dedicate a few hours to picking out the sunflower seeds.

So I want to add some seed and more veggies to his diet and see if that helps. (My fear is that once he realizes seed still exists, then he will completely refuse to eat the pellets. I sure hope not.)

Both Ralph and Scooter get a little seed mix every day, once they've eaten their vegetables, quinoa and/or pasta, and enough of their pellets to satisfy me. I like Higgins California Blend which is safflower based and doesn't contain sunflower seeds or peanuts (except maybe an occasional stray one, which gets tossed). Their Safflower Gold is good too but it does have a few peanuts that have to be disposed of. I also pick out the spiky black buckwheat seeds which neither parrot will eat. Since they only get the seed mix after they've eaten their healthier foods, they can't abandon the pellets or vegetables in favor of the seed. Maybe that system would work with Willow.

 

[ravvlet]

Kirby will do anything for a tiny piece of walnut. I like to sit in the bean bag chair I have on the floor by his cage and rustle the bag; he will enthusiastically climb down to my level to get one, then climb all the way back up to the top to eat it! I give tiny pieces to him just to get him moving around when he’s being sedentary or as a reward after something unpleasant (he gets sinus drops at night).

Sammy on the other hand doesn’t seem to like nuts much, but she loves “parrot cookies”, like the oven fresh bites etc. Those are honestly pretty high in fat so we only give her pieces of a biscuit and not a whole one.

 

[MykaMom]

Walnuts are a great treat based nut! Target tree grown nuts over ground nuts. Peanuts are a real no-no for both the high fat and the fungus that can be found on them. Julio has a love for Almonds.

Even when they've been roasted? I buy roasted in the shell. Now I may have to donate them all to squirrels...

 

[moon1964]

My Yellow shoulder Amazon, Salty, LOVES pine nuts! He would plow the back 40 for a pine nut!

i tried them they just threw them down grrr...and i dont like the taste of them so guess they go to the outside birds or should i keep trying

Treats are individual. Take 2 different nuts, offer them both on your palm and see which your bird chooses. Keep doing this until you find out which is his absolute favorite, called the 'high reward' treat.

Salty's bird chooses the pine nut. Mine ALWAYS goes for pecans, hands down. That's his highest reward.

Give your birb choices and you'll find out fast!

the BF will eat my hand and the DYH wont take anything from my hand. they love safflower seeds but they are spendy